Uncle Cole
by The cursed child
Summary: Wyatt said Uncle Coop, but Chris could only think Uncle Cole.


**A/N My obsession with Charmed is back, and so is my obsession with the love between Cole and Phoebe. I hope you love reading it as much as I did writing it.**

"Uncle Coop!" Wyatt yelled out, surprised, as the man in question appeared in the middle of the room. Chris rolled his eyes and shoved his brother as the older man clapped his hands in front of his mouth.

Really, he had lasted months without telling his parents and aunts who he was. Even when they did find out, it was only because Phoebe had seen it and known. Wyatt had lasted less than half an hour.

Chris took a good look at Coop. Cole. Uncle Cole. He had only said it out loud once, but in the privacy of his own head, he was always Uncle Cole. It had been that way ever since he figured it out.

"_What did you do this time?" Chris asked with pity as he found his uncle on the living room couch in the manor. He knew his parents were on a date, and Wyatt was helping his first charge with their little sister, so they were alone._

_Whenever his uncle and aunt were fighting, Coop would come to him. Chris knew that he just needed someone to talk to, and he had three daughters that tended to side with their mom most of the time. That, and it was Coop who'd helped him when the dreams came. _

_Dreams of another life. A timeline where Wyatt was evil, his family was dead and his fiancee killed by his big brother. His parents had suspected something would happen, and helped him sort through the memories and warned him when they knew what his next dreams would contain. Sometimes, when it became to much, he'd fled from the house where everything happened and gone to his uncle. _

_It was the logical choice. His parents and aunts were all part of his other life as well, so was Wyatt and most of his cousins. Coop hadn't existed in that timeline, and was the only one who wasn't confusing when his dreams collided with his memories. Coop's presence always reminded him of which memories were real, and when he was dreaming of another past that he'd never lived in._

_So when Chris was in trouble, Coop would be there, and vice versa. That was how he figured it all out. After a while it just wasn't possible to ignore it anymore. Coop just knew things that he couldn't know; like he had been there when the war-worn version of Chris marched through the manor in the past, trying to figure out why Wyatt was evil._

_Coop could warn Chris about memories that would invade his dreams with a startling accuracy. Hadn't been wrong once. He had been there when it happened, which was impossible, because that was before Coop came to help Phoebe and fell in love instead._

_Throughout his childhood, he never tried to guess the how or the had learned that some secrets are meant to be kept, even from family. Sometimes you had to pretend for a while, because they wouldn't understand. Two lives were at war with each other in his head, and sometimes he told his family that it didn't bother him anymore, just to see their relieved faces and happy smiles._

_It was fine that way, until he heard his mom talk about a loved one stuck in limbo after a particularly confusing innocent had unknowingly upset the balance of the uiverse and almost destroyed the peaceful place. That was the moment when all the dots connected without any effort on his part._

_There was no Coop, it was Cole. The demon turned man turned source turned avatar turned cupid. He was the same person, just surrounded by white instead of black._

_Whenever anybody met Cole, they thought of love and light, never pain and darkness. That alone, inspired him to keep his mouth shut and let things be._

_He was pulled away from his thoughts when Cole spoke. "I can't really talk about it," the man groaned. He threw his head against the back of the couch and stared at the ceiling in dispair._

_Chris somehow knew what he meant and took his customary seat on the armrest, three feet away from his uncle, digging his heels into the seatcussion. He waited a short second, expecting to see his parents orb in and reprimand him as they usually did._

"_Phoebe finally found out?" he asked curiously. He always wondered what would happen when she did. As far as he knew, Phoebe hated Cole as much as she loved him. Which was more than he thought anyone was capable of._

_Cole's head shot back up and he twisted his neck so fast that it probably just sat calmly, his hands resting on his knees, his pointy elbows digging into his legs. The half-whitelighter raised an eyebrow and simply looked. He had suspected that Cole knew he knew. Apparently not._

"_How did you find out?" Cole said, dodging the question. Well, he attempted to dodge it. Chris however was the self-proclaimed master of deceit, lies and trickery, and pushed._

"_How did she react?" Chris asked god curiosity only killed cats._

_Cole smiled, which confused Chris and made him lose his balance, forcing him to orb onto the couch in a normal position to avoid mockery for the rest of his life. "Phoebe?" Cole asked for clarification._

_Chris nodded impatiently, forcing himself not to try out his new version of the truth pushed the urge down and settled for tapping his fingers on the padded wood. This couch had seen its best years and was more than ready for the trash._

"_She's known for years, Chris," Cole widened his eyes a little, trying to urge his uncle on. He wanted an explanation._

"_And?" Chris felt like a little boy during story time, but didn't let the feeling deter him from his quest for answers._

"_You can't love someone as much as Phoebe and I do and not know who they truly are."_

_It was a very Cupid thing to again, Phoebe and Cole were the closest to a fairy tale couple he had ever seen. Even more so than his parents._

_But still, that really didn't get him any closer to what happened. "Can you just start at the beginning?"_

_Cole smirked, deciding to skip the perfect opening for a talk about the birds and the bees. "Sure," he said. "Let's start where she killed me."_

_Even though Chris had known that part of the story, he still flinched. _

"_I ended up in Limbo, a plane between life and death. My punishment. Not very imaginative, but effective none the less. I watched as Phoebe swore to never love again, so I found a demon and helped him become human so he could help Phoebe learn."_

_Chris had heard that story once before. "Drake, right?" he interupted._

_His uncle shot him an annoyed look. "Yes, Drake. He succeeded and the Elders somehow knew that I had something to do with it." Cole looked up again, like he was hoping the people upstairs would notice and answer his question._

"_They decided that they couldn't exactly leave me on another plane forever and refused to send me on, so they brought me back to life with some sadistic imagination, or at least I thougth so at the time."_

_Chris had a flash of an image of Cole with a bow and arrow in a diaper and banished it to the back of his mind, to never think of again._

"_They assigned me to couples that needed some help to fall in love. They felt that if there was anyone in the world who knew about unconditional love, it was me." Cole couldn't decided if he was proud or embarassed, and rushed on._

"_The Elders were convinced that if I had no powers I would try to find some in the underworld, so they gave me the ring, which only has good powers and allowed me to become stronger with every couple that I helped."_

_It had been a long struggle, but that was the first time he had actually been grateful to the Elders. A cupid can try and bend his powers, but they are too good to be twisted for evil purposes. Even if he had the urge to do something evil – and he never did – it wouldn't do anything. It had been the perfect both his and Phoebe's mind to rest. Allowing trust to built between them again._

"_Eventually, after months of non-stop work, they assigned me to Phoebe, the perfect punishment." Even though his tone was bitter, a small light danced in his eyes and the corner of his mouth twiched up into a smile._

"_You know the rest of the story. We fell in love again, found out that it was the way the Elders wanted it to happen, got married again and had the three most beautiful daugthers we could wish for."_

_He looked so in love, Chris realised. Whenever he thought of Phoebe, be it good or bad, he always had a lovesick look in his story was the example of love his cousins dreamed about. Simple love, no obstacles, meant to be. Even though they didn't know how many obstacles did stand in the way before they got it._

"_So why are you here?"_

_The smile fell of Cole's face. "My girls know of course, but Phoebe has decided that it's time to tell the family." _

_When you say family in this family, that means; uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews, siblings, grandpa and of course grandma and grams. Which roughly means that Cole was absolutely doomed._

"_You're doomed," Chris stated. No need to lie when they both know nothing can be said on the matter. When it came to Balthazar, the Halliwells weren't exactly open-minded._

_Cole groaned and let his head rest in his hands. "I know."_

"_Phoebe is crazy if she thinks this will go over well."_

"_I know."_

"_They're going to vanquish you."_

"_I know." _

_Chris, already thinking of half a dozen complicated plans to save his uncle's life, orbed the Book of Shadows down and leaved through it. Before he could mention his theories and find the correct spell, a door slammed open and Cole tried to make himself as small as possible as his wife approached him._

_Phoebe was about to speak, a rant on the tip of her tongue, when she spotted anger seemed to drain away and she threw herself on her husband's lap with a sigh and a chaste kiss on the lips._

"_I'm sorry," she said, "I know that it's a bad idea." She obviously wanted to say more, but Chris' presence in the room stopped her._

_Cole put a finger on her lips. She had nothing to apologise for._

"_Chris knows."_

_Phoebe, much like Cole, strained her neck to watch her nephew suspiciously. "How?"_

"_I was wondering that myself," Cole replied._

_Chris wanted to answer, but even he didn't know exactly how he knew. It had just fallen into place one day."I guess that I just knew that you don't find true love twice." _

_And watching them together on the couch, he knew that what he said was true. _


End file.
